I really wanted to get this column up on time, but this week is
just conspiring against me. For example, last night someone had something really really important
to tell me, said to wait 5 minutes, so I did, said he was almost done, so I waited 5 more minutes,
and so on until it was 2 AM! Then just when I was about to start writing this, my mom came in
with Perfect Dark. MUST BE STRONG! MUST BE STRONG! So now I have to sit here and write a column
with a game I've been waiting 2 years for sitting RIGHT THERE in shrink wrap. Tomorrow's Thursday
though, and I never get a Thursday column up late as you know. Oh, and there's a special surprise
at the end of today's, enjoy!

Greetings omni...potent slime entity
And Paws (funny, I've got a friend on ICQ who's name is Pawz, and he has a friend named Paws,
seriously)

Even though I've sent many letters in and none of them have gotten posted I figure I might as well
keep on trying. Anyway, since you asked for FF questions, here's one: I've been playing FF6 (my
very favorite for many reasons) for a long time now (on an emulator no less), and I've done
everything there is to do except assault Kefka's Tower. About two-thirds of my party are lvl 99, the
others are in their 40's and some know very little magic (the people never used, like Strago). What
I'm asking is this, should I pack up and head for the tower and worry about leveling and learning in
there? Or should I just go ahead and get better levels and learn more magic before attempting?

Oh, also I've been wondering about Strago. It wasnt until I beat FF7 that I realized how handy
enemy skills can be. Do you know of a good place where I can send Strago to learn some Lore?
And how should I go about doing it? Thanks alot for your advice ^_^

Your most self-serving, rebellious, and all together avant-garde RPG'er, Phoenix ^_^

"I am! A man! Of the sea!"

Googleshng:Emulation is bad, m'kay? That being said,
the end of FF6 REALLY isn't all that hard. You can hadle winning right now. If however,
you really want to go overboard, here's what you do: First, go down to that dessert which
I seem to recall is in the southwest and kill Cactrots to learn every spell real fast.
Then go to the northest, there's a forest full of dinosaurs which very very rarely give you economizers.
Finally, head to the veldt, where you can more or less pick up every single blue spell
for Strago, and get all of Gau's rages.

FF7 question?!?

Yo Googleslime (No, that greeting was not intended to be an
insult!),

Let me get the question aside;
WHERE THE HECK IS VINCENT!?
... Sorry for the outburst, but if I don't find him soon, I'll be forced
to sell those guns so I can buy more HP Plus materia!

Okay, now I would like your permission to put you in an RPG I plan to
program one day.

I'm totally serious here. I'm going to make several FF6-like games a
year or so from now, and you are cool enough to be a hidden character in
one of them. I'm not talking about one those easy-to-find, "let's walk
through a hallway to get a character with God-like powers" hidden
characters, either. I mean, you'll have God-like powers, but you will
be a challenge to get. The party will have to find a hidden underground
castle, battle hideous enemies, battle an even more hideous boss, then
fight in a duel with you to prove they're worthy of having you in the
group.

Don't worry about your gender. You'd be that slime form of yours that
you use in Slime World when you make an announcement (Slime Worlds 10
and 55):).

So, how 'bout it, Goog? Please? Just tell me what weapon you'd like to
use, and you're in!

Googleshng:Always spiffy when people put in their
own <BR> tags. Anyway, Vincent is in the Shinra Mansion. You can get him at pretty
much any point in the game you want, although it's a bit of a pain. For more information,
check our 5 billion FF7 walkthroughs. 8) Now then, what weapon would I use in an RPG?
Well, I suppose depending on setting, that would be a scythe, a katana, a chainsaw, or
a sawed off shotgun... or whirling blades if I were a robot. 8)

Anime and FM3

Greetings, Google:

As someone who has seen the first season of Slayers, I must ask you a few
things. I have all 8 tapes myself and:

A) I have the dubbed versions, and two things I've noticed, Lina's voice
sounds very nice and Gourry sounds like Brock from the Pokemon cartoon. Am
I a bad person for owning the dubbed versions?

2) I have only seen through episode 7, but I can't motivate myself to see
the rest of them. Can you provide some sort of motivation?

D) Have you ever visited the Organized Chaos website? You can find it at
http://www.crosswinds.net/~rinichan/ . It has cool Slayers pics!! And they
have funny comments on them too!!

&) On FM3, for a funny little e-mail, try e-mailing SQUARE@0730. Or, during
the Emma missions (I'm on the Alisa ones), Ryogo can e-mail either
HODAKA@0700 or LUO@0899.

~MagusAkaAlex "A Green Dragon draws near! Command?"

Googleshng:Yes. You are a very bad person for owning
dubbed Slayers. It's not that Lisa Ortiz is untalented, just very miscast. Let me
put it this way. This is Lina's Japanese voice actress.
See what I mean? Anyway, moving on HODAKA@0700 is the address for getting the cool Xenogears
picture, thanks for sending that in.

Xenogears question?!? (OK, it's getting old, I'll stop)

Googleshng,

I enjoy your column immensely along with my friends Raven and
GnomoDiablo, we love RPGAMER. I have a question about Xenogears. I have
been playing for about 24 hours and I am at the part where you are in d
quadrant of nortune. I was jsut wondering(along with Raven) if the little
restaurant in the HQ(where the infirmary is) actually does anything to your
stats permanently? I haven't been able to figure it ou, and I am wondering
if it is worth the time of staying in d quadrant to find out. Could you
please tell me?

Oh yeah what kind of average on levels is there for this point of the
game? I am around 45. Should I stay and get level ups in the sewer or just
continue the story line?

Thanks,

Vladimir the Wretched

Googleshng:No, the restaurant does not have any
permanent effects on your stats, the double speed thing is pretty spiffy though. As
for levels, unless you actually run from fights, you should be fine. Death blows are important
however. I recall that as being a good point to make sure you have every deathblow you're
on a high enough level to get. At level 45, I think you might be able to get all the 6
AP ones.

Black smithery

Gratuitous FF8 Spoilers

Hi Google,

My sister was at the anime expo, but I didn't get a chance to tell her to
look for you beforehand : (

I got Vagrant Story, interesting play mechanics, great graphics (except for
the up-close pixelization), and a battle system that penalizes you for just
pounding on the attack button! (as in, you would die. a lot.)

But that's all intro stuff. The main point of this letter is the current
poll. I'm in the group that would play it and not care. But there's an
option missing; I would play it and care. I would care to be given a game
in which all the story parts can be resolved without having to confront some
Big Bad Thing intent on destroying the world, or even just your little
corner of it. Granted, an RPG without battles would be rather boring, but it
is possible for the heroes to go on a quest that provides them with
development and gives the player a feeling that it was worth it without
having to save the world from the BBT. After all, I've seen quite a few
complaints that Ultimecia seems tacked on to FF8. If you look deeper, her
actions form a lot of the overall plot, but had she been removed, it still
could have been a very satisfying experience seeing Squall and Rinoa develop
a relationship while confronting some less world-threatening force, maybe
culminating in their wedding or something. Let the gamer (and fanfic
writers) speculate on how the final battle was fought, after the credits
roll. You lose the epic scale, but do RPGs really need that?

Of course, a lot of people would look at such a game as they would at a hero
cop movie where the hero wears a uniform, follows procedure, and arrests all
the villains instead of strewing their body parts all over L.A., but oh
well, I can hope...

Bart (I need to make another mad lib)

Googleshng:I agree more or less. A lot of people
sent stuff in about that poll. It's actually not an academic question. I've played a few
RPGs that don't end with killing the big evil source of all misery. There's still plenty
of major battles in them, just that the end of the game isn't one of them. I mean, not
EVERY threat to the world can be solved by killing one guy/monster/evil incarnate, can
it?

Surprise!

Hey there!

It's me, chesh. WHere have I been? Eh, sick + midterms + lots of other
stuff adds up to no fun. I've included a Front Mission 3 shot. Hope you
enjoy.
As to the guy who wrote in asking if it was a coincidence that the
"Cheshire Catalyst" that wrote those articles was me, sorry no. I'm far
to busy creating silly pictures, playing septerra core, studying
calculus, or sending in my "stories" to penthouse.
Goog, have you ever seen/heard of an anime called "Blue Submarine #6?"
Why do I ask? Because Cartoon Network will add this show, along with
Tenchi Muyo, to its Toonami lineup in the near future. Toonami will also
start broadcasting the dubbed Sailormoon S and Super S, along with 77
new episodes of Dragonball Z soon too.

And that's all I have to say. I'll try to keep this daily again, but
with the finals pinch, who knows!

Cheshire Catalyst

Googleshng:Blue Submarine #6? Never heard of it.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Tenchi a bit too risque for American TV? Then
there's Escaflowne on Fox... did someone go and murder censors, or do I have to hide
under a rock now? Anyway, good to have you back.

Quickies

I just looked at the clock. It's 6. No time for quickies.

Really sorry about that.

The Last Laugh:

ACK! I have NO idea how this took so long! It is NOT my week! A bunch of people caught
that this week's quote was from the intro of Vagrant Story. Here's tildes: ~~~~